In the weeks since announcing his presidential run, Marco Rubio has seemingly been softening his stance on gay marriage. He told Face the Nation last week that he doesn't believe being gay is a choice for most people and earlier told Fusion's Jorge Ramos that, yeah, he'd attend a gay wedding if "it's somebody in my life that I care for." But Rubio would also apparently tell his gay loved ones (whom he acknowledges are gay not by choice) that they have no legal right to their marriage.

Now that the presidential candidate is on the trail in Iowa, he's doubling back down on his conservative bona fides and said in one interview this weekend that "there is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage."

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The interview came with David Brody, the evangelical host of CBN's Brody Files. Brody quizzed the Miamian about the Supreme Court's looming decision on gay marriage and arguments that the Constitution should offer equal protection to same-sex couples.

"There isn't such a right," Rubio told Brody. "You'd have to really have a ridiculous and absurd reading of the U.S. constitution to believe that people have the right to marry someone of the same sex. There is no such constitutional right."

Instead of court fights, Rubio argued, gay-marriage supporters should legalize the practice through state legislatures. Rubio went even further with his CBN host by accusing LGBT-rights activists of trying to "stigmatize or ostracize anyone who disagrees with them."

Of course, the idea of mainstream, conservative Republicans being stigmatized and ostracized like generations of gay people would be laughable if it weren't so patently offensive.

But it's Rubio's "go to the statehouse" argument that's particularly disingenuous. The entire reason courts exist to handle these cases is because elected political leaders are often beholden to voters who don't particularly care for unpopular civil rights.

So to recap, if you're pals with Rubio and are gay, he'll go to your gay wedding and happily acknowledge you were born with an LGBT sexual orientation. But he'll also fight like hell to keep the courts from allowing you to get married.

Tim Elfrink is an award-winning investigative reporter, the managing editor of the Miami New Times and the co-author of "Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez and the Quest to End Baseball's Steroid Era." Since 2008, he's written in-depth pieces on police corruption, fatal shootings and social justice issues across South Florida. He's won the George Polk Award and has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.